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Last Updated: Oct 28th, 2008 - 17:57:18 |
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese forces attacked a Darfur displaced persons camp on Monday, leaving up to 27 dead and scores wounded, rebel leaders said.
Kalma camp in South Darfur, home to some 90,000 people who have fled their homes during five years of fighting, has long been a centre of unrest.
The government has accused armed rebel supporters of taking refuge in Kalma while residents have accused government-backed militias of mounting a string of raids on the settlement.
Yahia El Bashir, the British-based spokesman for one faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), said government troops had gone into the camp to try to clear it of residents.
"This is a message of defiance to the international community. We call on the UNAMID peacekeepers to do their job and defend the IDPs (internally displaced persons)," said Bashir, whose faction is led by Abdel Wahed Mohamed Ahmed al-Nur.
UNAMID, the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force deployed in the vast region in west Sudan, has been severely hampered by shortages of equipment and troops.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir denies accusations that his forces are responsible for genocide in Darfur, and Arab and African states say moves by the International Criminal Court to indict him could hinder efforts to bring peace.
Leaders of two rebel factions told Reuters that government troops in around 100 vehicles surrounded Kalma at 5 a.m. (0200 GMT) on Monday, then opened fire.
"I am inside the camp Kalma. Now there is still shooting," Abakr Suleiman, a senior tribal leader inside the settlement, said at 10 a.m. "There is heavy shooting. They came into the camp and killed people. There are houses burning."
CAMP RESIDENTS RESIST TROOPS
Ahmed Abdel Shafie, leader of another SLA faction, said there had been 27 confirmed deaths in what he said was an attack by Sudan's armed forces, though a UN source spoke of unconfirmed reports that armed Sudanese police had been involved.
"The IDPs are resisting, we are expecting casualties," Shafie added. "They (the government of Sudan) want to demolish Kalma camp, they want to force people to leave."
UNAMID spokesman Kemal Saiki said there were unconfirmed reports of an exchange of fire between Kalma residents and government authorities who tried to mount a search operation in the camp, close to south Darfur's capital Nyala.
Another UNAMID official said Sudanese police had shown peacekeepers a search warrant authorising them to enter Kalma camp to search for weapons and "possible wanted persons". The authorities have tried unsuccessfully to disarm Kalma residents in the past.
UNAMID officers were on their way to the camp to prepare a full report, the official added.
No one from the armed forces or police was immediately available for comment.
The new joint U.N.-African Union mediator for Darfur, Djibril Bassole, is due to arrive in Khartoum on Monday to take up his position.
International experts say more than 2.5 million Darfuris have been driven from their homes to take shelter in camps like Kalma by five years of violence that has also killed 200,000 people. Sudan accuses western media of exaggerating the scale of the conflict and puts the death count at 10,000.
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